In Support Of Our Boys In Blue

How would you like cameras watching your every move on the job, leading to second-guessing by experts, civilians, and people on the scene observing? How would you like cameras all over your job, recording your every move- good or bad- for scrutiny? I bet you'd hate it, or at least balk at that.

Well, if you did balk, an umpire would be there to call it. That may be the one call they always get right too because they are the only ones who (seemingly) know what a balk is anyway. I guess they do it well. Who knows?

However, they sure as fuck seem to be in the dark as to balls and strikes. The best thing you can say about their rather fluid strike zones is that they are generally unfair to both teams. Yep. Wrong but, fair. Does it get any better than that? I hope so.

Is it fair to the umpires to judge their work with cameras and computer systems like Pitchtrax? I think so. I am a Cubs fan and watch a lot of other Major League Baseball games, as well. I love baseball. The coverage on any given game is very good and you get a great view of every pitch. After years of playing (as a kid) and watching MLB, I'm a pretty good judge of the strike zone. That doesn't mean I could go behind the plate and be as good as the average MLB umpire. Nor does it mean I'd be worse. It's a tough job. Just to get to the bigs, they work of thousands of hours calling tens of thousands of balls and strikes. The way the major's works, they are only calling balls and strikes behind the plate every fourth game as they rotate around the bases. It's not something each guy does every day. It's hard to become an expert at that rate.

Pitchtrax might not be perfect but, it's better than any MLB umpire. And it might be perfect. It sets a standard strike zone and it stays there. There's a lot to be said for that. Essentially, the strike zone is between the letters (on the players uniform) and his knees, and over home plate. It is a pitch that a batter should be able to hit. A good pitch. The problem, and my beef, is that to a lot of the boys in blue, a pitch a foot off the ground is all too often called a strike. It's not what anyone would reasonably call "hittable" yet of late, many umps call it a strike. There are a lot of questionable calls east and west as well- pitches that aren't exactly over the plate, but the low-strike seems to be in vogue.

By and large, MLB umpires are the best referees in sports. It's a tough job but on the bases at least, replay often proves them right. They tend to get safe and out right and if they don't, replay review now corrects that during the game. Prior to that you had to write it off to human error and accept that mistakes are made. Nobody is perfect.

But, too many of them really suck behind the plate. And it's killing the game.

It's time for MLB to fully enter the 21st century and let computers call balls and strikes. The umpires have a union and I don't want to see anyone lose their job ('cept maybe that fucking asshole, Joe West) so, retain a guy in the capacity of home plate umpire but, do NOT let him call the pitches. Obviously a human being needs to be there to document runs and call safe or out in plays at the plate. You can't change that.

The players deserve consistency and so do the fans. The players make their living playing this wonderful game and how well they ply their trade should not be subjected to the whims of an arbitrators subjective interpretation of balls and strikes. A player or manager can be thrown out of the game and fined just for arguing balls and strikes. If they didn't have that in place- as awful as umpires can be- we'd still be in spring training now with players arguing bad calls. Take humans out of the equation. Take the arguing out of it too by relying on the consistency of modern technology. It will speed up the game and certainly take some of the angst and vulgar language out of it, at least in my house. Wouldn't we all be better off without a Ferrerman screaming: "How the actual fuck can that cocksucker call that a fucking strike??!!"  It would sure clean up the game in so many respects.